Archie and Lilibet Markle, Meghan Markle and Prince Harry’s children, aren’t senior enough to have HRH titles, so they use the royal family’s official surname. Mountbatten-Windsor was a member of the Mountbatten-Windsor family.
Being a senior member of the royal family entitles you to a variety of prestigious titles, such as HRH, dukedoms, and honorary ranks.
The Queen’s relatives further down the line of succession, on the other hand, do not have this privilege, so they must use a common surname like the rest of us.
While Prince George, Princess Charlotte, and Prince Louis go by their parents’ ‘Cambridge’ surname at school, their cousins Archie and Lilibet go by the royal family’s ‘official’ surname, Mountbatten-Windsor.
The name is a combination of the royal surname Windsor and the surname Mountbatten of Prince Philip.
The name, however, caused a huge uproar in the royal family and was even brought up in Parliament, causing a rift between the Queen and her husband.
Although the name didn’t appear on an official document until 1973, the complicated story behind it dates back to 1952.
Prince Philip of Greece and Denmark of the House of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg was Philip’s official title before marrying The Queen and becoming the Duke of Edinburgh.
However, his given name was deemed insufficiently neutral, so he took the surname Mountbatten after his grandparents.
When Princess Elizabeth gave birth to the couple’s first child, Prince Charles, in 1948, he assumed that their child would bear his name due to tradition.
When Elizabeth became Queen in 1952, she had to confirm the Royal Family’s official surname, and many people wanted her to keep Windsor rather than change it to Mountbatten.
Winston Churchill is said to have pushed for the Royals to use the name Windsor, and Queen Mary, the Queen’s grandmother, agreed.
It is said to have created such a stir that it was even brought up in Parliament.
In the end, the Queen decided to back her family’s position, and the name Windsor was adopted.
“I am nothing but a bloody amoeba,” Philip allegedly said at the time. I’m the only man in the country who isn’t allowed to name his children after himself.”
For years, he was bothered by the subject, but it wasn’t until 1960 that Elizabeth decided to do something about it.
Elizabeth was Queen when the couple became pregnant with their third child, and Philip was still determined that his children take his surname.
So Her Majesty is said to have gone to see Harold Macmillan, who had taken over as Prime Minister at the time.
She admitted that the issue “absolutely needed to be revisited” and that it “had been irritating her husband since 1952.”
Finally, a compromise was reached, and the Queen announced her adoption of the name Mountbatten-Windsor on February 8, 1960, 11 days before Prince Andrew was born.
She declared that all of her descendants who do not have the title of His or Her Royal Highness would use it.
And it’s still in use today.
“The Royal Family name of Windsor was confirmed by The Queen after her accession in 1952,” according to a statement on the Royal website. The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh, on the other hand, decided in 1960 that they wanted their direct descendants to be distinguished from the rest of the Royal Family (without changing the name of the Royal House), because Windsor is the surname used by all male and unmarried female descendants of George V.
Meghan Markle and Prince Harry treat Lilibet to incredible birthday cake – see photo
“The Queen’s descendants, other than those with the style of Royal Highness and the title of Prince/Princess, or female descendants who marry, would carry the name of Mountbatten-Windsor,” the Privy Council declared.
